7 comments:

But just like I remember my own family, like you remember yours,and like so many Fox-News-watching "just ordinary folks" diner-goersI get to overhear in Queens and New Jersey. (I **never overhear**"left wing" remarks at the places I frequent. On the other hand,I don't live in Berkeley. Or even Manhattan, for that matter.)

But speaking of New Jersey -- I could swear that the "Gay and LesbianStudies" section at the 3 Barnes & Nobles in my area have beensteadily shrinking in recent years. And in fact, one of the 3 stores hada major move-the-sections-around (and expand the kids' merchandising)reorganization recently, and I went looking for the "Gay and Lesbian Studies"section, and **I couldn't find it**! (It's never in the "Sexuality"section -- which is always next to "Relationships", "Self-Help",and "Psychology"; it's always next to "Cultural Studies", and"Women's Studies". But I couldn't find it anywhere.)

Well, this type of joke is standard fare in my neck ofthe woods. Why should anyone be surprised that justbecause someone is a federal judge that they would viewthings any differently than your standard, working classbigot?

Given that judges perform a function that requires for its intelligibility and force on a reasonable expectation of impartiality it seems to me the biases that make for "standard fare" may conflict with the "higher standards" of his position. I don't think this is an impeachable offense, but I do think people in public life, especially in responsible positions, should confirm the respect they have for their offices far more often than they seem to do by resigning from them when their conduct suggests disrespect.

About the glbtq sections of bookstores -- you have probably noticed that many glbtq publications, the gamut from academic press series to popular periodicals, have also folded and maybe these shrinking sections reflect that, er, wider shrinkage. Or maybe this is a displacement of don't ask don't tell onto a new institutional domain? I have to say I'm not happy about the incredible shrinking glbtq movement -- although I can't say I am particularly surprised that the recent spate of scattered superficial successes of the most consumer-friendly portion (military service, gay marriage) of what began as radical gay liberation struggle is showing signs of seeming quite content to call it day before getting on with the actually radical actually emancipatory queer liberation struggle gay liberation flowered into, before even actually securing the victories they were already cheerfully settling for. Grumpy old pinko commie queer rant over and out.

The dominant narrative of evangelical politicization goes somethinglike this: After decades of exile from public life following a seriesof embarrassing and highly publicized defeats in the 1920s,Bible-carrying Christians entered politics in the 1970s. Led bypreachers-cum-pundits like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson,an entire generation of Christian conservatives mobilized inresponse to issues like racial integration, abortion, and gay rights.Almost overnight, this army of holy warriors, marching under thebanner of the Moral Majority, descended upon the nation’s capitolwith a goal of resurrecting the mythical “Christian America” of yore.

As with all generalizations, this narrative contains nuggets oftruth. But, as Purdue University professor Darren Dochuk argues. . .the traditional account obscures a fascinating regional andpolitical tale. . . [which] begins with the migration of hundredsof thousands of white evangelical Christians from the“western South” -- states like Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas --to the West Coast. And it ends with the political ascendancy ofRonald Reagan, who claimed the presidency in 1980 thanks largelyto the efforts of a unified evangelical electorate. . .

Arkies, Okies, and Texans. . . migrated to [California] inthe 1930s and 1940s in hopes of finding well-paying jobs. TheseDust Bowl migrants carried with them their deeply held religious faith,as reified in the numerous Baptist, Pentecostal, andChurches of Christ congregations that cropped up all along theWest Coast in these years. Soon, these evangelicals discoveredthat their native Californian neighbors were not always sympatheticto their Southern ways. . .

Those who defected to the Republican Party often felt that theyhad betrayed their southern heritage and a political vision thatrightly provided for the poor and dispossessed. Those who stayedtrue to the party of their youth were increasingly alarmed byCalifornia Democrats’ visions of a racially egalitarian,politically progressive New Deal society -- a vision that challengedevangelicals’ notions of white privilege, self-determinism,and economic security.

In a few short years, political shifts within both partiesfinally forced evangelical Democratic stalwarts to the realizationthat a change was necessary. That change came in the formof an alliance between evangelicals and big business—analliance that linked disenfranchised plain folk Democratswith pro-capitalist conservative businessmen and intellectuals,both Christian and non-Christian alike. Partially an effortto prevent permanent New Deal reforms from taking hold,and partially an effort to create a united conservativecoalition that could challenge an encroaching liberalismat the state and federal levels, this alliance ultimatelysucceeded in bringing evangelicals out of the economicand cultural margins and into the mainstream. More importantly,this alliance worked to unite the politically fragmentedsegments of evangelicalism, enabling these Christians“to continue their errand for Christian Americanism together”. . .

[Accumulating] ever-increasing amounts of social and economic capital. . .[i]n the postwar years, many of Southern California’s white evangelicalsascended into the burgeoning upper-middle class and secured lucrative jobsin the region’s expanding industrial and professional economy. Now securein their newfound wealth, evangelicals replaced Depression-era economicconcerns with fear of communist infiltration and “one-world-order schemes”(as they often described the United Nations). Southern-born celebritypreachers like Billy Graham drew on these fears. . .

[E]vangelical entrepreneurs formed alliances with suburban housewivesand right-wing politicos to create a subcultural network of evangelicalschools and colleges [which] they hoped, would produce studentsdedicated to Protestant nationalism and free-market values. . .

Evangelicals increasingly believed that their goal of a Christian Americawould come not just through evangelization but also through legislation. . .[T]hrowing their considerable resources behind the presidential campaignof Barry Goldwater. . . California evangelicals enlisted their churches,schools, associations, and ministries on behalf of the Republican contender.

Once provincial and divided, these Bible-toting Christians now constitutedone of the most powerful and visible movements in American society.They had cultivated more than a modicum of intellectual respectabilityand. . . middle-class mobility. . . [T]heir Sunbelt alliance [comprised an]informal network linking Los Angeles to Oklahoma City, St. Louis to Miami. ------------------------------------

I get to overhear in Queens and New Jersey. (I **never overhear**"left wing" remarks at the places I frequent. On the other hand,I don't live in Berkeley. Or even Manhattan, for that matter.

I live in what is arguably the most progressively minded town in the UK and I don't "hear" progressive remarks very often. If a straight person has a perfectly cordial normal conversation with a homosexual you don't "hear" a progressive remark. If someone makes a disparaging remark about someone due to their sexual orientation or ethnicity that is what sticks out.

Plus racist assholes tend to whine and vent hatred whereas people don'e tend to rant about how tolerant and accepting they are of other people. So you can't measure progressiveness by counting noise in my view as there's selection bias and assymetry at work.

I don't have to wander far to hear a bunch of racist assholes mouth off though. I live in a very progressively minded bubble. The neighboring suburbs are full of some pretty reactionary people.